Summary

Occupied Americais an engaging and comprehensive overview of Chicano history. Passionately written and extensively researched, the book presents coverage of the roles of race and gender in forming Mexican American identity.

Author Biography

Rodolfo F. Acuña, the founding chair of Chicano Studies at then San Fernando Valley State -- the largest Chicano Studies Department in the United States with 30 tenured professors -- has authored 19 books, three of which received the Gustavus Myers Award for the Outstanding Book on Race Relations in North America. Acuña has received the Distinguished Scholar Award, National Association for Chicano Studies, the Emil Freed Award for Community Service, Southern California Social Science Library, the Founder's Award for Community Service from the Liberty Hill Foundation among others. Black Issues In Higher Education selected Acuña one of the “100 Most Influential Educators of the 20th Century. Among his best-known books are Sometimes There is No Other Side: Essays on Truth and Objectivity (Notre Dame, 1998); Anything But Mexican: Chicanos in Contemporary Los Angeles. (Verso Press, 1996), US Latinos: An Inquiry (Greenwood Press, 2003), Community Under Siege (UCLA, 1984), The Sonoran Strongman (University of Arizona, 1974). His most recent works include Corridors of Migration (Greenwood Press, 2008). In the Trenches of Academe is in progress. Acuña has also written three children’s books and has another book in production and authored more than 160 academic and public articles in addition to over 140 book reviews. As an activist scholar he has been a leading voice in the Mexican American community.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 Not Just Pyramids, Explorers, and Heroes

The Cradles of Civilizations

The Corn People: An Overview

The Olmeca 1500 bc—500 bc

The Maya

Maya Hieroglyphic Writing

Maya Society

The Decline of Mayan Civilization

Teotihuacán

Urbanism and Trade

Los Tolteca

Other Corn Civilizations

The Tarasco

The Azteca

Los Norteños

Conclusion: The World System in 1519

Chapter 2 The Occupation of Middle America

What Drove the Conquest

Africa Begins at the Pyrenees

The Spanish Conquest

Faith Versus Rationality

The Spanish Invasion of the Mexica

The Colonization of Native Mesoamerica

Smallpox and Other Plagues

The Conquest of Race and Labor in Mesoamerica

Women in Colonial Mesoamerica

The Changing Roles of Women

The Assimilation of Native Women

Al Norte: God, Gold, Glory, Silver, and Slaves

The Decline of the Indigenous Population

The Changing Order

The Bonanzas

Forced Labor

The Northern Corridor

The Decline of the Native Population

The Colonization of Texas

ElPaso del Norte

The Tlaxcalán and the Castas

The Importance of San Antonio and Links to the Rio Bravo

The Occupation of Alta California: Paradise Lost

Los Indios

The Missions: Myth and Reality

Conclusion: On the Eve of the Mexican War of Independence

Chapter 3 Legacy of Hate: The Conquest of Mexico’s Northwest

What’s the Evidence?

Mexican Independence from Spain

Background to the Invasion of Texas

Broken Promises

Follow the Money: The Land Companies and Trade

Wanna-Be Sam Adamses

The Point of No Return

The Invasion of Texas

The Pretext: Myths of the Alamo

The Defense of the Mexican Homeland

Mexicans Win the Battles but Lose the War

The Invasion of Mexico

The Manufactured War

An Unwarranted Aggression

The Pretext for Conquest

Religious Justifications for War

History as Propaganda

Peacemakers Expose the Violence of War

The San Patricio Battalion

The War Crimes

Mexicans on the Front Lines

The Prosecution of the War

The Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo

The Controversy

The Deception

The Honorable Man

Conclusion

SECTION ESSAY: THE BORDERS CROSSED US

Chapter 4 Remember the Alamo: The Colonization of Texas

The Years Between 1836 and 1845

Crossing the Northwest Texas Mexican Border

The Mexican Corridor

Control of the Corridor

Trade Wars and the Rise of Juan Cortina

Enter “Cheno” Cortina

The Civil War

The Transformation

Hang’em High!

The Historian as an Agent of Social Control

Controlling the Mexicans

Politics of Race and Gender

Resistance

The People’s Revolt

The Ballad of Gregorio Cortez

Boss Rule The Railroad and the Advent of Industrial Capitalism

Mexico Comes to Texas

Reform Politics and Mexicans

The Growth of the Mexican Population

The Growth of Racist Nativism

Mexican Resistance

Conclusion

Chapter 5 Freedom in a Cage: The Colonization of New Mexico

On the Frontier

The Santa Fe Trail: The Trojan Horse

Anti-American Sentiment

The Euro-American Invasion

The Taos Revolt: The Myth of the Bloodless Conquest

Inventing Whiteness

The Transition

The Illusion of Inclusion

Gringos and Ricos

How Was It Done?

The Santa Fe Ring and the Land Grab

The Lincoln County War

Socialization

The Americanization of the Catholic Church

The New Mexican Diaspora

The Marketplace

New Mexico in Colorado

The Resistance

Barb Wire, Irrigation and the Railroad

The Village People Defend Their Land

More Illusions of Inclusion

The End of the Frontier

The Growth of Industrial Mining

Changes in Society

Federal Encroachment

Conclusion

Chapter 6 Sonora Invaded: The Occupation of Arizona

The Frontier

The Gadsden Purchase

The War with Sonora

Filibustering Expeditions into Sonora

Mexicans in Early Arizona

The War of the Races

The Race Question

Marrying Up!

The Alliance of Elites

The War Against the Apache

The Fate of the “Friendly Indian”

The Land-Grab Grant

The Transformation of Arizona

From Adobe to Copper

Border Conflicts

The Pull Factor

The Industrialization of Arizona

The Importance of Mining

The Expansion of Capital

Industrial Mining

The 1890s: The De-Skilling of Mine Work

The Impact of Industrialization on Mexicans

Mutual Aid Societies

The Mexican Middle Class

Small Favors to Women

Miners Organize: The Emergence of Trade Unions

It’s the Water

Conclusion

Chapter 7 California Lost: Image and Reality

The Myth That Has Become Legend

The Mexican Period

The Class Gap

Women in the Transformation of California

The Bear Flag

John C. Fremont and the Bear Flag

U.S. Invasion of California

Gold Transforms California

The Gold Rush Creates a Template

Complicity of the Californios

Legalized Theft: The Foreign Miners’ Tax

Decline of the Californios

The Locusts

Taxation Without Representation

Marrying White

Legalizing Racism

Legitimization of Violence

The Mexican Prostitute

The American Dream, The Lugos Trial

The Disillusionment

El Clamor Público

Class Divisions

Social Banditry

I am Joaquin!

Mexicans in a Changing Society

Becoming a Minority

The Church’s Role

Labor

The Exclusion of the Other

Colonias

Conclusion

SECTION ESSAY: EMPIRE

Chapter 8 Immigration, Labor, and Generational Change

Overview

Ideas Cross Borders

Justice Knows No Borders

Industrial Bonanzas

The Nurturing of Ideas

The Mexican Diaspora

It Is all about Making a Buck

Forging a Community

The Mexican Revolution

Bullets Across The Border

Hysteria Across the Border

In Defense of the Community

A Changing Society

Mexican Workers Under Siege

The Hysteria: The Plan of San Diego

World War I: The Shift

Shifts in Political Consciousness

Mexican Responses to Industrial Transformation

The Failure of American Brotherhood

The Westward Movement of King Cotton

Conclusion

Chapter 9 The 1920s: The Effects of World War I

Americanization: A Study of Extremes

Protestant Churches and Americanization of the Mexican

Catholic Churches React to Americanization

Nationalism Versus Americanization

Mexicans and Mexican Americans

The Influence of World War I on Becoming Mexican American

The League of United Latin American Citizens

The Move to the Cities

San Antonio’s West Side

Los Angeles: “Where Only the Weeds Grow”

Mexicans in the Midwest and Points East

Mexican Labor in the 1920s

Importance of the Sugar-Beet Industry

Mexicans in the Northwest

Mexicans in Texas

Mexicans in the Midwest

The Growth of California Agribusiness

Mexican Unions

Greasers Go Home

Keeping America Blond and White

Conclusion

Chapter 10 Mexican American Communities in the Making: The Depression Years